Randy, a financial adviser, and Paige, CEO of The Family Place, made their separate ways from college to Dallas in August 1977. They met through a friend, dated for a year or so and got married in 1980.

Randy, a list-loving sentimentalist, wanted to do something special to mark the beginning of their journey together. So he came up with the idea of a throwback tour of restaurants and clubs that were here when they showed up.

“I started thinking about all the places we used to go to and thinking, ‘Gosh, which of these places are still open at the same locations that we might have gone to 40 years ago?' ” he says. “I went down the rabbit hole and started compiling a list and checking to see when places actually opened.”

Vaughn Gross (second from left) shares a laugh with Tex Gross, Paige Flink and Randy Flink during dinner at Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant in Dallas. The Flinks have been in Dallas for 40 years and are dining out a couple times a week at places that are as old as their time in Dallas.

(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)

Randy and Paige want to visit every “certified” establishment by the end of the year.

“This is a Randy Flink thing,” says Paige. “I’m the accomplice. It’s amazing that these places have lasted for 40 years.”

The couple hasn’t been to most of the restaurants on the list for years. Some will be brand-new experiences.

Dallas as the 1970s mecca

Fortunately, the Flinks will be able to relive their first official date at Javier’s on Cole Avenue.

Randy and Paige were like so many young professionals in the 1970s who were drawn to this city of new, glimmering tall buildings and opportunity — pretty much the same story line as today.

She was 21. He was 24.

The chalkboard gives the lowdown at St. Martin's Wine Bistro on Greenville Avenue.

(Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer)

Paige, who hails from Tullahoma, Tenn., landed in Big D the day Elvis died. She’d come here for an internship with the now-gone Sanger-Harris department stores during her final semester at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

“So I drove through Memphis as he was passing away,” she says.

Randy, who grew up in suburban Chicago, was finishing his MBA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and cast his eyes south, where the economy was bustling while the Northeast and Midwest were mired in recession.

“The term Sun Belt was just beginning to be hatched,” Randy says. “When the recruiters came to campus, I paid more attention to the ones who were coming from the South. I got a job offer in Dallas and came down.”

Paige, who knew only one person in town, moved into the Whippoorwill Apartments at the corner of McCommas Boulevard and Matilda Street. The woman in the apartment below was in the training program at First National Bank in Dallas. So was Randy.

Paige and Randy met at a “group date” at a bar called Banana’s Cafe in the European Crossroads. After eating free shrimp at happy hour, everyone went to see Animal House. Only the movie lives on.

“It’s fun to remember Elan, the Railhead, Whiskey River, Mariano’s [in Old Town] and Daddy’s Money,” Paige says, ticking off the dearly departed. “We were in our 20s, and it was fun. You just sorta went out a lot.”

Culling the possibilities

Randy’s spent the past couple of months combing through cobwebs of his memory, tapping the brains of friends in the eating know, and searching the internet for candidates.

He figures he’s culled more than 100 possibilities to come up with 36, and still counting.

Some just missed by a year or two. But if he couldn’t nail down the birth date to precisely 1977 or 1978, he gave the establishment the benefit of the doubt.

Some are 40-plus but have moved locations — Old Warsaw being one. “That was disappointing because we wanted to go back there,” he says.

The French Room at the Adolphus has been closed for nearly two years and is on its way to yet another incarnation. Randy’s breathing a sigh of monetary relief on that one.

Randy and Paige Flink recently revisited Kuby's in Snider Plaza. On Saturday nights, a polka accordionist entertains diners at the German restaurant.

(Paige Flink)

The Jack in the Box at Mockingbird Lane and Abrams Road — where I used to make late-night taco runs in college — was disqualified, because fast-food chains do not reflect any sort of local flavor.

Greenville Avenue — from Old Town to Lower Greenville — was ablaze with new eateries in the late 1970s. A surprising number are still around today, including The Grape and St. Martin’s Wine Bistro. They went to both on the same evening — sort of a retro wine crawl.

“We get so caught up with, ‘What’s the newest thing?’ that sometimes we miss out on people who’ve been around for so long,” says Paige. “I hadn’t been to St. Martin’s in forever. They have a piano bar. It’s throwback a little bit. But it’s a cool place.”

The Flinks went to Kuby’s in Snider Plaza on a recent Saturday night. The polka accordion player was in fine form.

“Kuby’s is what it is: good German food. It’s not trendy like poke bowls,” says Paige. “But I don’t know if there’s going to be a poke bowl in 40 years.”

Pondering about Ponder

“We had elderly neighbors when we lived in East Dallas,” says Randy, “and every year at Christmas they’d take a group of us up there in their motor home. We’d be singing Christmas carols all the way up and all the way back. So I said, ‘All right, we gotta put that one on the list.’ ”

Randy and Paige Flink hold their fresh-off-the-grill burgers at Parkit Market.
The Greenville Avenue convenience store and deli has been in business at the same location for more than 50 years.

(Courtesy Paige Fink)

Do they still top the aged hand-cut grilled steaks with butter?

“I’d be disappointed if they didn’t,” he says. “It’s a heart attack waiting to happen. But I would say that any restaurant that’s on this list is not a healthy choice option.”

Sure, S&D Oyster Co. on McKinney Avenue has broiled fish. But it’s known for its New Orleans-style fried shrimp, oysters and po-boys.

Celebration on Lovers Lane has added “a healthier menu” to its homestyle pot roast, fried chicken and cobbler. But Paige and Randy will probably stick with the traditional fare.

Randy made a vow to finish this restaurant binge without gaining any weight. We’ll see how that works out.

They had thick, juicy hamburgers fresh off the grill at Parkit Market — the half-century-old convenience store and deli counter on Greenville that’s still the go-to place for beer kegs and margarita machines. They also carted off 40 pounds of ice for a party they were hosting the following day.

Last Monday evening, the Flinks ate like royalty at the original Campisi’s Egyptian Restaurant on Mockingbird. Their cover had been blown earlier that day when The News asked to take photographs inside the iconic dining room and had to explain why.

As they walked in with their friends, Vaughn and Tex Gross, the Bee Gees' 1977 hit "Night Fever" was playing. The manager refused to let the photos be taken until the table was laden with Italian specialties.

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“After our crab claws, toasted ravioli, salad and pizza, they insisted on bringing us a big piece of Italian wedding cake for dessert,” says Randy. “It was the last thing we needed, but the truth is, most of the pastry chefs in town could learn from that cake.”

Turns out the owners of Parkit Market are cousins of the Campisis.

“I would like to be in the chow line at one of their family gatherings,” Randy says.

Additions welcome

Randy knows that the list is incomplete and is eager, if not a bit anxious, to find out about omissions.

I reminded him of Spaghetti Warehouse, which opened in the West End in 1972. Several others — Kosta’s Cafe on Greenville, Louie’s on North Henderson Avenue, Henk’s European Deli and Black Forest Bakery on Blackwell Street and The Magic Time Machine in Addison — aren’t quite as old as I thought.

The Record Grill located at 605 Elm St. Dallas, Texas has been in business more than 40 years at the same location. Photo taken on Wednesday, May 23, 2017. (David Woo/The Dallas Morning News)

(David Woo/Staff Photographer)

“I think we’re missing those little Mexican taco shops that have been around forever, but they’re in areas where we’ve never gone to,” he says. “I hope somebody identifies a few of those.

"Just so that everybody knows, this is a humble undertaking. We’re open for more suggestions.”

My friend and former colleague, Dotty Griffith, has been observing the restaurant scene since becoming our food editor in 1977. She gives a thumbs up to the list and the concept.

"Legacy restaurants like these are community treasures,” she says. “They often embody iconic regional or local cuisines, like El Fenix for Tex-Mex and Norma's for home-cooking, i.e. chicken fried steak. Or, like Campisi's, they may be beloved because they introduced a 'foreign' food to Dallas, in this case pizza and Italian-American food at a time when Dallas was pretty homegrown and basic.